Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine! This week I am waiting for the release of two debut books, one adult and one YA: Salt Houses by Hala Alyan and Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali.

I
first saw this book in a library journal and I knew I had to read it. I know it won't be an easy read, but I can definitely tell that it will be enlightening. On the eve of her
daughter Alia’s wedding, Salma reads the girl’s future in a cup of
coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she
also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to
herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is
uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Salma is forced to
leave her home in Nablus; Alia’s brother gets pulled into a politically
militarized world he can’t escape; and Alia and her gentle-spirited
husband move to Kuwait City, where they reluctantly build a life with
their three children.

When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait
in 1990, Alia and her family once again lose their home, their land, and
their story as they know it, scattering to Beirut, Paris, Boston, and
beyond. Soon Alia’s children begin families of their own, once again
navigating the burdens (and blessings) of assimilation in foreign
cities. Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses is a
remarkable debut novel that challenges and humanizes an age-old
conflict we might think we understand—one that asks us to confront that
most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again.

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

Publish Date: June 13, 2017

Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Salaam Reads

This
is a YA debut for the Salaam Reads imprint, which I am really looking forward to reading. This book tackles several important issues that are timely and important.

How much can you tell about a person just by looking at them?

Janna
Yusuf knows a lot of people can’t figure out what to make of her…an
Arab Indian-American hijabi teenager who is a Flannery O’Connor obsessed
book nerd, aspiring photographer, and sometime graphic novelist is not
exactly easy to put into a box.

And Janna suddenly finds herself
caring what people think. Or at least what a certain boy named Jeremy
thinks. Not that she would ever date him—Muslim girls don’t date. Or
they shouldn’t date. Or won’t? Janna is still working all this out.

While
her heart might be leading her in one direction, her mind is spinning
in others. She is trying to decide what kind of person she wants to be,
and what it means to be a saint, a misfit, or a monster. Except she
knows a monster…one who happens to be parading around as a saint…Will
she be the one to call him out on it? What will people in her tight knit
Muslim community think of her then?

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I am a librarian at Maine East High School. The opinions and content of this blog are my own and are not that of my employer.
Note to Authors/Publishers: If you would like me to read and review your book, please read my Review Policy.